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Amos 3:7 Principle
This section originally appeared within the "Spiritual Intelligence" section of Part II of the Manifesto, entitled The Prophetic Dimension. This section, and where it appears within Spiritual Intelligence, is indicated below, followed by the text of the section * Normal Intelligence * Paranormal Intelligence * Biblical Examples of Spiritual Intelligence * Prophetic History in CAWKI * God's GPS * Amos 3:7 Principle * Ways not Works * Disciples that God seeks "Preach to the tree!" * Industrial Revolutions compared * The Inspiration Age (the 4th Industrial Revolution) * Prophetic Pictures * Benjamins * Prophetic Warnings * When the Stones cry out ---- The prophet Amos says: ‘Surely the Lord God does nothing, Unless He reveals His secret to his servants the prophets’(Amos 3:7) The principle is simple. God has deliberately covenanted with mankind and is transparent enough in this relationship that he allows for a select group of individuals to peep into his cards, or watch over his shoulder – a group who have a God-given security clearance and have access to otherwise classified information. In the Old Testament we see the difference between people to whom God shows “his works” (thunder, lightning, miracles, the dividing of the Red Sea, etc.), and those to whom God reveals “his ways” (his plans, inner motives, etc.). These individuals, like Moses and Abraham, men God calls his friends, have such a security clearance. This friendship with God is closely related to our character, not just a charismatic gift, and requires, as my prophetic friend John Mulinde (Uganda) never tires to say, a lifestyle of seeking God, ready to be set apart for God. The result are individuals who are set apart, different from the rest, to whom God communicates in special ways, and who also, in turn, call their people to be set apart, for the purposes and ways of God. At all times in church history, there were people who seem to have been able to hear God’s voice in a special way. There was a significant increase of prophetic activity, though, in the 80s and 90s of the last millennium. But just the statistical growth of the prophetic does not necessarily mean that everything that calls itself prophetic really is. Many people, not only from the various charismatic movements of our days, are quite unhappy with the quality and caliber of the majority of prophets and prophecies they come across. The Bible plainly tells that it is possible “to speak our own heart” or “prophecy,” what others want to hear or what seems politically opportune at the time. Here we have to remain with both feet (or all four wheels) firmly planted on the ground, and soberly watch two things: do the things prophesied actually come to pass, and does the prophet allow favor to flow towards him or her, or towards God? In my office there is a file with a label called Amos 3:7. Here I collect prophetic words that I observe because I consider them important, especially when they speak about the larger context, not just individual people or movements. Six months before the devastating Tsunami (Dec. 2004), a number of prophetically gifted women (many illiterate) in India had foreseen such a catastrophe and recommended moving out of the coastal area that was later hit. Some of these documents in my file have to do with the USA. Here are two examples: * Hurricane Katrina - "A Purifying Wind" * Erich Reber's Vision of a Terrorist Attack